A pedestrian at the intersection of Alinga Street and Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, Australia. In the field of Road transport, an intersection is a road junction where two or more Roads either meet or cross at grade (they are Canberra ( is the capital city of Australia With a population of over 340000 it is Australia's largest inland City. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether walking or running. Walking (also called ambulation) is the main form of Animal Locomotion on land, distinguished from Running and crawling Running is a means for an animal to move on Foot. It is defined in Sporting terms as a Gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground In some communities, those traveling using roller skates, skateboards, and similar devices are also considered to be pedestrians. Roller skates are devices worn on the Feet to enable the wearer to glide along on Wheels History The first Patented roller skate was introduced In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case historically. A road is an identifiable route, way or path between two or more places.

History

Walking is the primary means of human locomotion. The first humans walked out of Africa about 60,000 years ago. Wells, Spencer (2005). Genographic Project. They walked along the coast of India to reach Australia. They walked across Asia to reach the Americas, and from Central Asia into Europe. Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pedestrianism was a popular spectator sport just as equestrianism still is. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar For the Roman class see Equestrian (Roman Equestrianism refers to the skill of riding or driving Horses This broad description One of the most famous pedestrians of the day was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, known as "The Celebrated Pedestrian", of Stonehaven. Robert Barclay Allardice ( August 25, 1779, Stonehaven, Kincardine and Mearns - May 8, 1854) the 6th Laird of Stonehaven ( Steenhive in the Doric dialect of Scots) and Cala na Creige in Gaelic is a town with around fourteen thousand inhabitants His most impressive feat was to walk 1 mile every hour for 1000 hours, which he achieved between the 1st of June and the 12th of July, 1809. A mile is a unit of Length, usually used to measure Distance, in a number of different systems including Imperial units United States Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1809 ( MDCCCIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year This feat captured the imagination of the public, and around 10,000 people came to watch over the course of the event. During the rest of the nineteenth century, attempts to repeat this particular athletic challenge were made by many pedestrians including the renowned Ada Anderson who developed it further and walked a quarter-mile in each quarter-hour over the 1,000 hours.

Since the nineteenth century, interest in pedestrianism has dropped. Although it is still an Olympic sport, it fails to catch public attention in the way that it used to. The Olympic Games is an international Multi-sport event established for both summer and winter games However, pedestrians are still carrying out major walking feats such as the popular Land's End to John o' Groats walk, in the United Kingdom, or traversal of North America from coast to coast. Land's End ( Cornish name Penn an Wlas) is a headland on the Penwith Peninsula, located near Penzance in Cornwall John o' Groats ( Taigh Iain Ghròt in Scottish Gaelic) ( is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The first person to walk around the world was Dave Kunst who started his walk travelling east from Waseca, Minnesota on June the 20th, 1970 and completed his journey on October the 5th, 1974 when he re-entered the town from the west. Dave Kunst (born July 16 1939) is the first person to officially walk around the earth Waseca is a city in Waseca County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 8493 at the 2000 census These feats are often tied to charitable fundraising and have been achieved by celebrities such as Sir Jimmy Savile or Ian Botham as well as by people not otherwise in the public eye. The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates Fundraising is the process of soliciting and gathering Money or other gifts in-kind by requesting donations from individuals businesses charitable foundations or governmental Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE, KCSG (born 31 October 1926) commonly known as Jimmy Savile (often misspelled Sir Ian Terence Botham, OBE (born 24 November 1955) is a former England Test Cricketer and Test team captain and current

Health and Environment

Regular walking is very important for both a person's health and the natural environment. Health is a state of complete physical mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity See also Nature The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a terminology that is comprised of all living and Obesity and related medical problems can be effectively prevented and/or cured by moving on foot on a daily basis. Obesity is a condition in which excess Body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be negatively affected The widespread habit of taking the car for short trips significantly contributes to both obesity and climate change, owing to vehicle emissions, as internal combustion engines are extremely inefficient and highly polluting during their first minutes of operation (engine cold start). Obesity is a condition in which excess Body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be negatively affected The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the Combustion of Fuel and an Oxidizer (typically air occurs in a confined space called a General availability of public transportation encourages walking, as it won't, in most cases, take one directly to one's destination.

Roads

The pedestrian Bauman Street in Kazan. Central shopping street KazanJPG|thumb|150px|Bauman Street Kazan Kazan (Каза́нь Казан tt Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities

Nowadays, roads often have a designated footpath attached especially for pedestrian traffic, called the sidewalk in American English and the pavement in British English. Traffic on Roads may consist of Pedestrians ridden or herded Animals Vehicles Streetcars and other Conveyances either singly A sidewalk (chiefly North American English) pavement ( British English and Philadelphia dialect) footpath ( Australian English Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the There are also footpaths not associated with a road which are used purely by pedestrians, particularly ramblers, hikers or hill-walkers and there are roads not associated with a footpath. Such footpaths in mountainous or forested areas are called trails. On some of the latter, pedestrians share the road with horses and vehicles whilst on others they are forbidden from using the road altogether. Vehicles, derived from the Latin word vehiculum, are non-living Means of transport. Also some shopping streets are for pedestrians only. Some roads have special pedestrian crossings. Crosswalk button neJPG|right|thumb|The button one pushes to activate the crosswalk signal A bridge solely for pedestrians is a footbridge. A footbridge is a Bridge designed for Pedestrians and in some cases cyclists and horse riders, rather than vehicular Traffic

Under British law, regardless of whether there is a footpath, pedestrians have the right to use almost all public roads, excluding motorways and some special toll tunnels and bridges such as the Blackwall Tunnel and the Dartford Crossing. The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road Tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the The Dartford Crossing joins Dartford and Thurrock across the River Thames, to the east of London. It is usually advised that pedestrians should walk in the opposite direction to oncoming traffic on a road with no footpath.

Pedestrianisation

Colorful pedestrian Light Tunnel at Detroit's DTW airport.

Efforts are underway by pedestrian advocacy groups to restore pedestrian access to new developments, especially to counteract newer developments where 20 to 30 percent do not include sidewalks. Advocacy Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes –including public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political economic and social systems Some activists advocate large auto-free zones where pedestrians only or pedestrians and some non motorised vehicles are allowed. Car-free zones (also known as auto-free zones and pedestrian zones) are areas of a city or town in which automobile traffic is prohibited Many urbanists have extolled the virtues of pedestrian streets in urban areas. An exception is New York City, the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is 8% [1]). The transportation system of New York City is a cooperation of complex systems of infrastructure This policy severely restricts or effectively prohibits pedestrian traffic and contributes to excessive car use on short distance trips.

In contrast pedestrian traffic is officially encouraged in some parts of the European Union and construction or separation of dedicated walking routes receives a high priority in most large European city centres, often in conjunction with public transport enhancements. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in In Copenhagen the world's longest pedestrian shopping area, the Strøget, has been developed over the last 40 years principally due to the work of Danish architect Jan Gehl. Copenhagen (ˌkəʊpənˈheɪgən ˌkəʊpənˈhɑːgən ˈkəʊpənˌheɪgən ˈkəʊpənˌhɑːgən kʰøb̥ənˈhɑʊ̯ˀn kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn is the capital and largest city Strøget (literally "the straight" or to wander) is a carfree zone in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jan Gehl (born 1936 is a Danish Architect and Urban design consultant based in Copenhagen and whose career

The promotion of walking has been linked to the rebuilding of social capital. Social capital is a concept in business economics, Organizational behaviour, Political science, Public health, Sociology and natural

Other uses

The word pedestrian is also used as an adjective having a figurative meaning of "unimaginative" or "ordinary. " This is by implied contrast of a walker with an equestrian (horse rider). E. g. ‘’She wrote pages and pages of pedestrian prose’’.

See also

• Walking
• Pedestrian-friendly
• Traffic calming
• List of U.S. cities with most pedestrian commuters
• Car-Free Zones
• Dérive aimless walking usually through city streets
• Junior safety patrol

External links

• Early Pedestrians in North America
• US Pedestrian Advocacy Groups
• UK Pedestrian Advocacy Group
• New Zealand Pedestrian Advocacy Group
• Transportation Alternatives: Pedestrian Advocacy
• America Walks
• Street quality promotion by street parties
• Pedestrian InRoads - US Pedestrian advocacy group
• Perils For Pedestrians on Google Video
• Walkable Communities
• Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets study
• Ultramarathons